Sydney Kunkel’s infections grin gets wider when she talks about the $40 of rolled pennies and nickels her and her parents are preparing to give to a group that hopes to establish a Children’s Hands-On Museum in Macomb County.

In fact, the 7-year-old Mount Clemens resident and student at Seminole Academy said she has been one of several area young people that are raising money for the museum for many weeks, since she saw the Hands-On group’s booth at the Mount Clemens Art Fair.

“We went to the art fair – that’s where they asked kids to help,” said Kunkel.

he group that hopes to establish the museum was assembled in earnest two years ago. Early on, the local activists and business leaders that comprise the committee decided that Macomb County’s children should have a role in creating a cultural destination for children, said Monika Rittner, the president of the Hands-On committee.

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“It’s important to have a children’s museum in Macomb County as a resource for our children,” she said. “Our intention is to get the kids involved in building the museum; the way we look at it, it’s important for them to have ownership of the project. They’ll reflect back on it years from now and understand that they were a contributing factor in building it.”

A destination for kids

Hands-On Museums differ from other institutions in that they take their name to heart. Interactive exhibits – which present concepts like construction, energy conservation, health and fitness, math and science, ecology, history and media – are designed to encourage children to take an active, and imaginative, role in learning.

The closest Hands-On museums in Michigan are in Ann Arbor and Flint, both of which are a significant distance from Macomb County.

Additionally, there is a children’s museum in Detroit, and the Cranbrook Institute of Science, which offers children’s programming, is located in Bloomfield Hills, said Rittner.

“I think there’s an obvious need for children to have a museum of their own in this area that’s hands-on in this nature,” she said. “We want to

make sure kids get excited about jobs of the future, and this museum will provide that opportunity.”

The group that is spearheading the Macomb Hands-On effort was formed in 2010. The committee just raised $40,000 for a feasibility study, which indicated building modification and exhibit-related costs could be up to $9.9 million and $7 million, respectively. The figure, said Rittner, is a moving target because there has not been a decision about how many exhibits the museum will have. The study is based on 20,000 square feet of exhibit space.

Also, Rittner said the committee will likely scout locations in the county seat of Mount Clemens, and that the goal is to open by 2014. The feasibility study indicated that the building at 70 Macomb Place, the location of Hallmark.

“The cost is going to be determined mostly by the size of the facility, and the number and type of exhibits we will have,” said Rittner.

The study also estimated that in the first year of operation, the museum could draw between 50,000 and 100,000 visitors from a 50-mile radius around Mount Clemens.

Inventive fundraising

Raising $10 million for modifications needed to get the museum off and running will not be an easy task for the committee; corporate giving, which typically provide much-needed support for cultural and learning institutions, has been curtailed amid a difficult economy for even some of the most venerable establishments.

In an effort to find new ways to raise money and involve children the committee recruited young people at the Mount Clemens Art Fair to raise money.

Kathleen Kunkel, Sydney Kunkel’s mother, said the effort has been a worthwhile one for her daughter, who has taken part in charitable efforts before, despite her young age.

“I think what Sydney has learned is that it’s important to try to help people,” she said. “She had a lot of fun raising the money, but she’ll know that it’s for a good cause.”